18th Festival Of Children's And Youth Films Opens In Moscow

The 18th festival of children's and youth films will be held in Moscow on December 17-22. The Russian Ministry of Culture and the Moscow Government participated in the organisation of the cinema forum which has been operating for 34 years, firstly, within the framework of the Moscow international cinema festival and since 1987 --independently. The festival will be held in the new, perfectly equipped central children's cinema "Five Stars". Its opening is timed to the festival. More than 50 festival films from 17 countries, including Armenia, Belarus, France, Germany, Denmark, Great Britain and Japan, will be shown in its four halls. The festival's jury headed by film critic Kora Tsereteli will award the first prize and two special prizes to the best motion pictures. The festival will open with the first show of Leonid Nechayev's film "Cricket Behind the Hearth". The contest programme includes 10 films. The festival will also represent the Panorama programme including the most interesting latest children's films. In addition, a special children's programme "Our Children" will be held for the first time. The Christmas-Film cartoon studio will represent the retrospective show of world-famous tales and screen versions of Shakespeare's books.